Hassan Rouhani & P.T. Barnum

The title of this blog, of course, refers to Barnum’s famous line–“There’s a sucker born every minute.” Which I believe is a perfect way to describe the euphoria which surrounded Hassan Rouhani’s election as President of Iran. As but one example, President Obama, days after the election, was quoted as saying the Iranian people had “rebuffed the hardliners and the clerics” by electing a moderate. Somewhere, P.T. had to be grinning.

So, let’s cut through the puffery and get to the truth:

* Fact-in 1978, Rouhani moved to Paris to join Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Revolution. When the Shah was overthrown, he returned to Iran with Khomeini to found the Islamic regime.

* Fact-Rouhani served as Chairman of the Majles Defense Committee from 1985-89. If Majles sounds familiar to you, they were the goon squad who randomly murdered & incarcerated protestors after the rigged 2009 elections.

* Fact-Rouhani was the Deputy Commander-in-Chief during the 1988-89 Iran-Iraq war.

* Fact-he followed that up by serving as the Chairman of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) from 1989-2005. Under his leadership, the SNSC (a) masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 85 innocent people, including many Holocaust survivors, were killed. (b) in 1996, the SNSC bombed the Khobar Towers, killing 19 U.S. servicemen.

* Fact-post-2005, he has served as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s personal representative on the SNSC.

So, let me ask you the reader–does that sound to you like the c.v. of a “moderate”?!?! Hardly. What of President Obama’s glowing words, or the effusive post-election editorials which appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times? There truly is a sucker born every minute!

But the proverbial nail-in-the-coffin to the idea of Hassan Rouhani as a moderate comes from none other than a member of his own family, unfortunately. I say unfortunately, because (as reported by the London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat) in 1992, Rouhani’s eldest son committed suicide in protest of his father’s involvement with Iran’s ruling regime and his relationship with Ayatollah Khamenei. He left behind a suicide note:

“I hate your government, your lies, your corruption, your religion, your double acts and your hypocrisy. I am ashamed to live in such an environment where I am forced to lie to my friends each day, telling them that my father isn’t part of all this. Telling them my father loves this nation, whereas I believe this not to be true. It makes me sick seeing you, my father, kiss the hand of Khamenei.”

I think that says it all.